President Biden’s lawyer Bob Bauer sharply criticized special counsel Robert Hur for calling the commander in chief sick in his blistering 388-page report.
Bauer was convinced that the 81-year-old president does not suffer from memory problems and called Hur’s report “a regrettable piece of work.”
“This is a report that went off the rails — a regrettable work product,” Bauer, who rarely does public interviews, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“Along with the legal conclusion comes this avalanche of characterizations, misstatements of fact, [and] derogatory comments about the president that are inconsistent with Department of Justice policy and standards,” he added. “This is not what prosecutors do.”
Despite his fierce criticism of the Hur report, Bauer praised its legal analysis as “foreseen and correct.”
Hur concluded that Biden “intentionally withheld and disclosed classified materials,” but declined to press charges, citing precedent, Biden’s cooperation and, controversially, that a jury would likely view him as a “well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.”
Bob Bauer called the report a “disgraceful job.” CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Bauer revealed that he never attempted to hide the 388-page report, which was made public last Thursday, accompanied by a letter written by Bauer and Biden’s special counsel, Richard Sauber, that criticized some of its conclusions.
Recounting that he was in the room when Hur questioned Biden for about five hours last year, Bauer took issue with the special counsel’s description of events.
“I remember from that interview a president who addressed the questions very directly and gave the best he can remember,” Bauer said.
President Biden angrily criticized Robert Hur’s report last week. REUTERS
“The special counsel’s decision to very misleadingly cherry-pick some of the references you’re discussing here is an example of what I call really woeful work product,” Bauer added.
Bauer also claimed that during the interview with Hur last October, the president was able to break down some of the special counsel’s questions.
“There were a couple of times where the special counsel … asked questions that the president picked apart as a matter of logic, and demonstrated that the question had no logical basis,” Bauer said.
Joe Biden’s classified documents investigation report
- Special counsel Robert Hur determined that President Biden “intentionally withheld and disclosed classified materials” after leaving office as vice president in 2016.
- The records maintained by Biden included documents on military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, as well as other national security and foreign policy issues.
- Biden kept the classified documents in part to help him with the writing of his memoirs. According to the report, Biden told a ghostwriter in a 2017 conversation that he “just found all the stuff classified below.”
- Despite the findings, Hur’s 388-page report recommended that the president not face charges.
- The special counsel noted that Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory” if he were tried.
“I didn’t think the special counsel didn’t ask accurate questions and thought he had mental acuity problems, I just thought he was asking bad questions.”
Biden was infuriated by some aspects of Hur’s report, particularly a section in which the special counsel alleged that he “did not remember, even after several years, when his son Beau died.”
“How the hell dare you bring that up? Frankly, when they asked me the question, I thought it was none of their business,” President Biden roared at a press conference last Thursday.
Bauer demurred when asked if Biden’s team would agree to the Justice Department releasing some of the transcripts of Hur’s interview.
Robert Hur raised questions about President Biden’s forgetfulness in his 388-page report. AP The Biden campaign has sought to highlight some of former President Donald Trump’s mental lapses during the election campaign. fake images
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He was also evasive when asked if Biden took action against his former aides, whom he blamed for the classified documents debacle.
Some of the criticism that Biden allies have leveled against Hur, a former US attorney for Maryland appointed by Trump, echoes his predecessor’s recent complaints against the Justice Department.
Former President Donald Trump has attacked the Justice Department for mounting a rigged “witch hunt” against him as he faces a total of 91 criminal charges, including those from district attorneys in Fulton County, Georgia, and Manhattan.
“I’m not saying the system is rigged. “We are analyzing this particular performance of this special prosecutor in this particular case,” Bauer responded.
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